How to Set Up Windows Live Writer to Publish Posts on WordPress

As a rule, webmasters upload and publish posts on WordPress website via WP admin and that requires correct login and timely content upload. Since that has been regarded as a troublesome business, you may long for an effective way to do so without paying too much effort. Windows Live Writer is come to this end.

This is a Microsoft application designed for desktop blog-publishing, which enables posts to be published from desktop instead of doing so via WordPress dashboard. If you are looking for a tool that raises efficiency of web content management, follow this guide on how to set up Windows Live Writer on WordPress.

What is Windows Live Writer?

Windows Live Writer is a free application developed by Microsoft, used for publishing posts directly from desktop. That is great for blogs or other sites with a large amount of content to update regularly. Featuring WYSIWYG, this tool makes word processing much easier and smoother. The map-publishing and photo-publishing functions make a big difference on media files upload.

Windows Live Writer is 100% compatible with a lot of popular software, like Windows Live Space, WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, and so on. That improves the usability of this great application. And now, it has been translated into 48 different languages to maximize customer satisfaction.

Set Up Windows Live Writer

A brief introduction about Windows Live Writer paves a way for application setup, which may excite you to download this post-publishing tool right away. Access to Windows Live Writer download page and get started to make it available on WordPress. Select a language from the drop-down list and “Download” it.

Open the downloaded file to install Windows Live Writer. There are several programs available to choose from. Leave all options uncheck instead of “Writer” and then click “Install”. Continue the following steps one by one and turn to “Welcome to Window Live!” box since all settings have been done.

If you have not registered a Windows Live ID, click “Sign up” to create an account with personal information. Since an icon like the following screenshot appears on your desktop, Windows Live Writer installation is completed successfully.

Click to configure Windows Live Writer and select a blog service that you are using. WordPress is included in the option “Other blog service”.

Enter the web address of your blog with WP admin login information as required. The blog is where to accept publishing posts. Click “Next” and wait for a few seconds to set up your blog account. In the mean time, you are asked whether to allow writer to publish a temporary post. Make a decision according to personal needs.

A notice said “Your blog has been set up” indicates successful configuration for Windows Live Writer. Click “Finish” to confirm that you are going to save this blog.

And then, Windows Live Writer editor pops up and invites you to edit & publish the first post.

Take a Good Use of Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer editor is easy to understand and handle, even for beginners without any professional skills. Enter a post title in the blank and edit post content on that intuitive dashboard. On the top of this editor, a toolbar including a bunch of functions for customizing fonts, typesetting, hyperlink, image and table.

Move to the bottom of this editor. There are three types of views available for checking text, including Edit, Preview and Source. Edit is used to edit the post and add some other content to it. Preview is where to preview the post and check if there is something improper when publishing this post on your site. Source is the area to check the source code of this post.

The right sidebar enables three modes for post content modification, including links to your site & WP admin, draft & recent posts update and insert options. The given links enables an access to your website and dashboard so as to generate a seamless joint between Windows Live Writer and your site.

Check newly updates via “Open” mode and this is where to show you the number of drafts and recently published posts. The “Insert” mode enables a list of functions to enrich a post, like Hyperlink, Picture, Table, Map, Video, and so on. More plugins are available for you by click “Add a plug-in”. Those methods are great for making readable and increasing the traffic of a blog.

A toolbar below the types of views enables three options for you to set categories & tags and set publish date. Select a proper category to hold this post and set tags for it with comma separated. And then, click the arrowhead icon and expand the list.

Determine whether to open or close comments and whether to allow or deny Pings. Besides, select an author who has made this post. If you want to publish this post to certain visitors, then you should password protect it and only make it public to specific visitors.

Having all settings done, “Publish” this post and view in browser after publishing. The post-publishing requires a few seconds and that depends on your network conditions.

Windows Live Writer Common Issues & Solutions

What to do if you cannot publish a post via Window Live Writer? Here, we collect some common issues that you may run into and give a valid solution for each problem.

Unable to Upload Image

When inserting an image into a post, the issue “The following images cannot be published because the weblog does not support image publishing” arises in some cases. The main cause to that problem is the improper configuration of FTP server, which has serious limitation for external image upload. Resize all images in proper size and avoid using overlarge images. Perhaps, you can upload image via WordPress dashboard > Media and then link it to the newly created post.

Template Detection Error

The “Preview” function enables you to check a post through website front-end. However, since WordPress Live Writer cannot download the active theme, the theme cannot be displayed when you preview this post. The unique way to solve that issue is the use of the following code. Log into WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Editor. Add the following lines of code to your active theme. Note that, replace www.yourwebsite.com to your own domain name.

Since everything is stopped short during the process of post editing, you may be upset as if there is no way to go on. Keep calm and go to Start Menu. Find out services.msc and “Stop” it.

New Blog Configuration Error

The message said “Windows Live Writer is unable to detect your blog: server not responding” indicates there is something wrong with the post being configured. Here, making a change to .htaccess file can help you settle a matter with ease. Open your .htaccess file and add the following code to this file.

<Files xmlrpc.php>
SecFilterInheritance Off
</Files>

Summary

The steps mentioned above brief you on a rough idea about Windows Live Writer, in terms of functionality and usability. In fact, more possibilities are available for users who dig into this powerful post-publishing tool. We suggest you to install Windows Live Writer right now and explore it to get more surprises.

I've been an experienced web developer, SEOer and technical writer since 2003. I worked in many international high-tech companies including Microsoft and Autodesk before 2012. Now I own a startup company in San Francisco, CA, focusing on developing websites and blogs to deliver exceptional results to global readers by leveraging the power of Internet.
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